The Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has granted rate increases for Toledo Edison Co. and the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. (subsidiaries of Centerior Energy Corp.) in the full amount requested, but at the same time has recommended that Centerior remove from its regulatory books $1.25 billion in electric utility assets over a five-year period.
Sound bites from state and federal regulators.
Primergy Merger. Michigan regulators have OK'd the merger between Wisconsin Electric Power Co. and Northern States Power Co. The settlement assumes about 2 percent in cost savings on combined Michigan revenues, and imposes a four-year moratorium on rate hikes. Case No. U-10913, April 10, 1996 (Mich.P.S.C.).
Gas Pipeline Certification. Michigan certifies Thunder Bay Pipeline Co., L.L.C.
In April, Texas Utilities announced that it would buy ENSERCH, Western Resources launched a hostile takeover bid for Kansas City Power & Light, and The Southern Co. initiated its ultimately futile bid for the United Kingdom's National Power. Eight other pending mergers involving major electric utilities have been announced during the last year. Utility managements clearly believe their future success requires merging with other utilities.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved Portland General Electric Co.'s (PGE's) decommissioning plan for the Trojan nuclear power plant. The Trojan plant, which began operating in 1975, was permanently shut down in January 1993. PGE filed its decommissioning plan in January 1995, proposing to move the spent fuel to onsite dry cask storage, dismantle radioactive structures, and decontaminate the site for unrestricted use (except for the dry-cask storage area). t
Lori A. Burkhart is an associate legal editor of PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY.
LG&E Energy Corp. and subsidiary Louisville Gas and Electric Co. (LGE) have withdrawn from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) over the issue of electric restructuring.
In a letter to EEI president Thomas Kuhn, LG&E chairman and CEO Roger Hale said that LG&E advocates competition and retail access at the earliest possible date through federal legislation.
Power marketing administrations (PMAs) suffered a setback on May 2 when the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water and Power Resources held an oversight hearing on the Pick-Sloan Eastern Division of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). According to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report issued that morning, about $454 million of the Division's irrigation and flood control investment in hydropower facilities will not be recoverable, because the irrigation projects will not be completed.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) generally has denied rehearing of its comprehensive September 29 rate order concerning Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG). The order settled 23 rate cases, resolved the company's costs associated with the transition to Order 636, and refunded about $150 million to customers. Last September, FERC chair Elizabeth A.
Regulatory Commission to allow it to charge only marginal transmission costs (cost incurred due to additional electric power being transmitted on the system), and no embedded costs (fixed investment in plant and other facilities).
The three largest California investor-owned utilities (IOUs) (em Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDGE), and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) have circulated for comment working drafts of future Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) filings concerning a deregulated electricity industry.
One 150-page proposal asks that operational dispatch control of transmission facilities be conveyed to an ISO, beginning January 1, 1998.